Alexander Arms Ulfberht 338 Lapua Magnum Review

BY TOM BECKSTRAND ALEXANDER This long-range powerhouse blends Russian simplicity with American accuracy. ARMS

ALEXANDER ARMS .338 LAPUA Type: Piston-operated semiauto Caliber: .338 Lapua Magnum Capacity: 10 Barrel: 27 in. (1:9.3 twist) Weight: 19 lbs., 8 oz. Stock: Side-folding modified Magpul PRS Grip: Ergo Tactical Deluxe Length of pull: Adjustable Finish: Anodized aluminum (barrel: IonBond DLC) Trigger: Alexander Arms Tactical Blade Trigger Sights: None MSRP: $6,800 (ships with five maga- zines in a hardcase) Maker: Alexander Arms, www.alexan- derarms.com

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semiauto action is incredibly stressful and can fracture steel, especially with high-pressure magnum cartridges. The action has the two biggest lugs I’ve ever seen on a rifle. In order for them to fail, those two flat pieces of solid 8620 steel have to compress and/or shear. I just don’t see that happening. The lugs are designed to take all the abuse from firing the rifle and be the part that wears the fastest (preventing the receiver or bolt from wearing prematurely). If anyone has enough .338 Lapua ammo to wear out the lugs, the lugs are easily replaced. They slide out of the bolt when the rifle is field- stripped for cleaning and are removed or replaced without the use of any tools. The receiver itself is machined out of a solid block of 9310, an exceptionally The massive receiver is machined out of a solid block of 9310 steel. The magazine well is cut at high-grade steel that is also used to make an angle to allow easy magazine insertion and extraction from the prone position. bolts in premium ARs. It’s an expensive steel, but the presence of vanadium gives it a very tight and irregular grain struc- 100-YARD ACCURACY RESULTS choice of optic was a Steiner 5-25x56 ture that prevents it from cracking under Military Scope (see sidebar). Gun 1 repeated impacts, such as those dished I had the opportunity to test the gun Averge Best out by the .338 Lapua Magnum. Group Group over three days at New Mexico’s Felix The rifle is piston-operated and has Load (in.) (in.) River Ranch. There I was able to shoot a system that, externally, looks almost out to more than 1,400 yards. I fired 150 LAPUA 300-GR. SCENAR 1.22 .91 identical to what we find on an AK47 rounds the first day and immediately no- The author found the oval-shaped fore-end to be very comfortable. It has a full-length Picatinny rail for mounting optics. variant. The op rod is 161/2 inches long Gun 2 ticed how little recoil the rifle generates. and a half-inch in diameter. The rifle I attribute the mild recoil to the rifle’s cycles by diverting gas through a small LAPUA 300-GR. SCENAR .96 .78 weight and its operating system. The .338 port in the barrel and uses that gas to MILITARY 250-GR. SCENAR .91 .78 weighs 191/2 pounds, which makes it easy push the op rod rearward. Dual recoil on the shoulder. Also, semiautos usually springs — one left-wound and the other have less recoil than their bolt-operated right-wound to prevent binding — push counterparts because much of the energy f the shooting industry could present an award for the most exotic and ac- the bolt back into battery. caused by firing the round gets used to curate design of the last 25 years, the Alexander Arms .338 Lapua Magnum The gas leaves the barrel through a rifled, fluted and sent to IonBond for a cycle the action. While the .338 Lapua would win it. The last time we saw a company stray so far off the beaten path small port and enters an adjustable gas DLC coating. Magnum can be punishing in a bolt ac- block that houses the piston at the end tion, the weight of the Alexander Arms with such spectacular results was when Glock unveiled their odd-looking of the op rod. The adjustable block has GETTING TO KNOW THE RIFLE gun — and the mass of the bolt — soaks pistol in the mid-1980s. Admittedly, Alexander Arms’ semiauto rifle will never five settings numbered zero through The rifle has ergonomics very similar up enough energy that shooting the rifle sell like a relatively inexpensive polymer pistol, but it is no less extraordinary four. Zero turns off the gas system so the to an AR and uses any standard AR- is about like shooting a .308. rifle has to be manually cycled. The first type trigger, safety and pistol grip. The Thanks to the parts commonality and fills a niche that few knew existed until now. setting is for high-pressure ammo in hot stock on the rifle I tested was a modi- with the AR, manipulating the rifle was I conditions and/or suppressed use. Setting fied Magpul PRS that was adjustable for easy and intuitive. The grip and safety Alexander Arms takes its name from action rifle. If asked to describe the rifle techniques, it’s accurate. two is for general use with commercial both length of pull and comb height. My are in the same place, and the stock is a Bill Alexander, a Brit who washed up in one word, I would choose “simple.” A The action consists of a long operating ammo. Setting three is for low-pressure on our shores several years ago. Bill is closer examination of the rifle reveals rod that has a solid block of 17-4 stainless and hunting rounds. Setting four is for an engineer who worked for the British why that term fits. steel attached underneath it. The block arctic conditions where the rifle might be military and has a strong background in of stainless steel is the bolt, and into it shot at -65 F. weapons design and testing, so it makes DESIGN AND MATERIALS Alexander Arms machines space for dual When Bill told me the rifle was sense that he started a gun company The heart of any semiautomatic firearm ejectors and an HK-style sliding extractor. designed to pass both the U.S. Army’s when he came to the U.S. Bill is known is its operating system. After all, that’s The recoil lugs that keep the bolt closed extreme hot and extreme cold firing for the creation of the 6.5 Grendel, proba- what makes the firearm run. The system while the rifle is fired are two flat pieces schedules, my eyebrows went up. He said, bly the best hunting/long-range cartridge found on the .338 Lapua comes from an of steel that measure approximately 1/4 “I wanted to test it against some kind of available in an AR-pattern rifle. old Russian DP-28 machine gun, except x 1/2 x 3 inches. These two pieces absorb extreme performance standard, so I used Bill led the design team of Alexander the action is inverted and enlarged. all the abuse the .338 Lapua can dish the U.S. Army’s.” Fair enough. Arms’ latest creation, a rifle that has Alexander Arms chose the DP-28 system out. Unlike other semiauto actions with The rifle’s barrel is 27 inches long, has the ergonomics of an AR, an operating because it was so incredibly simple and, which we’re familiar, there’s no twist- a 1:9.3 twist rate and is made from 4140 system descendent from a 1920s Russian once scaled up in size and manufactured ing or camming action involved when steel (the same found on our own M-249 The author found the 19.8-pound .338 Lapua to jump around less than a lightweight .308. At machine gun and the accuracy of a bolt- with modern materials using modern the action cycles. Twisting to unlock a machine gun). The barrel is also button- 100 yards, it grouped under an inch.

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through it before I received The best group of the day it. The rifle without the brake was the last one fired — five — Gun 2 — had a flash hider 250-grain bullets within .78 and a brand-new, unfired inch at 100 yards. barrel on it. Bill wanted to see what happened as we shot it IMPRESSIONS through its break-in. I’ve never seen a simpler or I tested Gun 1 with Lapua’s stronger design anywhere in 300-grain Scenar bullet. I im- the gun industry. A detailed mediately noticed that — as is strip of the rifle is possible the case with many semiautos with an Allen wrench, a small — the rifle exhibited some hammer and a crescent The heart of the Alexander Arms piston system is its beefy, 161/2-inch operating rod attached to a solid block/bolt of stainless steel. sensitivity when firing the first wrench. The Russian roots round out of a freshly loaded are obvious from the rifle’s magazine (hand-cycling the Loaded for long range: The Alexander Arms 10-round magazines are simplicity, but the notoriously rifle’s recoil. Even a light .308 will often first round into the chamber made from polymer and easy to insert and remove. poor Russian accuracy is con- jump around too much to permit this, so seats the cartridge differently spicuously absent. The design I was both shocked and impressed when than how the gun automati- is so strong that I wouldn’t the .338 let me see my own impacts. cally loads them). The result? My first utilizing the 250-grain Scenar. The think twice about feeding the rifle a con- Such an advantage makes for some two groups had the first round impacting Scenar ammo was loaded to at least stant diet of ammo loaded to CIP max seriously fun shooting when you’re on away from the remaining four. When maximum CIP pressures but was still pressures of 68,000 psi. The action is also your own and don’t have someone to loading and shooting five rounds, groups comfortable to shoot, even without the an experimental handloader’s dream; it spot for you. And it’s invaluable for a hovered around 11/2 inches, with four of muzzlebrake. The loads had a muzzle ve- can take the beating without beating you. sniper because it cuts the sniper/observ- the five rounds clustered in a group that locity of 3,117 fps and only required 10.4 Alexander Arms has done a great job er dialogue to nothing. Measuring and measured from .75 to .9 inch. So when I mils of additional elevation to hit steel at designing a rifle that is incredibly fun to calling corrections for another shooter loaded six rounds in the magazine and 1,430 yards. shoot, easy to maintain, will probably can waste a lot of time, time for targets “wasted” the first one into the berm All groups for Gun 2 were fired with outlast its owner and is very accurate. to move and, more important, for wind behind the target, I could then put the the first round going into the berm and If I had some land and a hog problem — The adjustable gas block has five settings numbered zero through four. conditions to change. Being able to see remaining five into less than an inch. the next five onto the target. Gun 2 aver- or just loved shooting things that were where our first shot lands and imme- I tested Gun 2 with some 300-grain aged .91 inch with the 300-grain ammo far away — there isn’t a better tool for diately reengage without having to so Lapua ammo and military-grade rounds and .85 with the 250-grain Scenar loads. the task. common one for AR-pattern rifles. The toe while shooting paper. All of my shoot- much as cycle the bolt makes for a much magazine well is just forward of the trig- ing was done from the prone position. higher hit probability. ger, like an AR, but the magazine release One of the rifle’s most noticeable char- is found on the bottom of the trigger- acteristics is how easy it is for the shooter HOW IT SHOOTS Long-Yardage Glass guard where it meets the mag well. The to spot his impacts even while firing full- On my second day I took two of the Recently, I had the opportunity to use STEINER 5-25x56 MILITARY SCOPE release is a small, ambidextrous paddle power .338 Lapua Magnum loads, the guns and tested them for accuracy at Steiner’s 5-25x56mm Miltary Scope over the Objective Size: 56mm the shooter can depress with his index recoil being more of a gentle shove than a 100 yards. That’s a little close for such a course of a few days in New Mexico. Sum- Magnification: 5-25X finger. It’s easy to operate and tucked out sharp kick. My range session started with big gun, but it’s a standard that most can mertime temperatures in Albuquerque and Weight: 2.26 lbs. Roswell soared, and a fine, talcum-like dust of the way. steel at 550 yards, and I was able, even at replicate at their local range. One rifle Tube Diameter: 34mm coated everything left outdoors, including 16.8 in. The magazine well is cut at an angle to that relatively short distance, to spot my had a muzzlebrake, the other didn’t. We’ll Length: the Steiner. Eye Relief: 3.6 in. allow the shooter to insert and remove hits. Spotting one’s own rounds is a great refer to the rifle with the muzzlebrake as I like the 5-25X because having 20-some- MSRP: $3,096 magazines from the prone position with- way to assess how easy it is to manage a Gun 1. It had approximately 500 rounds thing magnification works well for all sta- out having to lift the rifle or move out of tionary targets regardless of the distance. position. It’s a smart design feature. Our If I’m zeroing at 100, I can see the one-inch and the illuminated reticle adjusts with the dots that I like to shoot for groups. Aiming turret on the left side of the scope. Just the best shooting comes when we disturb at a small dot at 100 yards is the best way center of the crosshairs illuminates, and the our position as little as possible, not only The muzzlebrake is very effective and helps to shoot tight groups because the small brightness level has 11 settings. The layout when firing, but when reloading. The render even Black Hills’ 250-grain Sierra target makes it almost impossible to have a for parallax adjustment, illumination, wind- 10-round magazines are made from poly- MatchKing load (2,950 fps) quite tolerable. wandering point of aim. Your crosshairs are age and elevation is intuitive and easy to mer and are easy to insert and remove. either on the target or they’re not. master. The oval-shaped fore-end is approxi- If you’re shooting out past 1,000 yards, After four days of abuse, the scope proved the 20-plus magnification helps you see the to be a robust, quality optic that worked well mately 20 inches long and extremely com- target. Should there be too much mirage, across a broad spectrum of scenarios. The fortable in the hand. It has a Picatinny rail humidity, or if the barrel is just too hot to MSR reticle is a great choice for a wide range that runs its length along the top and can allow you to see clearly, you can always dial of shooting styles. It is simple enough to accommodate rail sections on the sides back the magnification to sharpen the image. be self-explanatory and precise enough for and bottom if you desire. I’d probably The Steiner 5-25X I tested came with a first- any application. The elevation and windage only need one small section to attach to focal-plane reticle that made it possible to distances. The crosshair portion of the reticle turrets return to zero after making multiple mil accurately at any power. This was invalu- subtends at each half mil, and there is a mea- adjustments, are easy to read and stayed the bottom for a quick-detach bipod. able in the New Mexico heat when the scope suring aid in the scope that subtends down to where I put them. With its simple operation, I shot the rifle both off the bipod with a never saw 25X. The MSR reticle that I tested a tenth of a mil. Measuring targets accurately excellent glass and durability, the Steiner small rear bag under the stock’s toe when worked very well for evaluating the Alexander was a snap with the MSR reticle. 5-25X scope is a great choice for long-range engaging steel and off of a larger front Arms rifle while shooting steel at unknown The turrets adjust in tenth-mil increments, high shooting. • sandbag with the smaller bag under the

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